Venezuela is not only one of the largest countries in Latin America but also plays a crucial role in South America as it is home to 20,000,000 people in addition to being a global economy player thanks to its energy wealth. Geographically, Venezuela shares its past 3,000 miles’ border with Guyana, Brazil as well as Colombia ( Morris, 2012) and as a country, Venezuela’s economy is primarily driven by its oil reserves which happen to be the world’s largest reserves.
However, the county has been experiencing a crisis that has continually worsened over the years. The countries former president, Hugo Chavez governed the country from 1998 until he died of cancer in 2013 after which he was succeeded by Nicholas Maduro. Under Chavez leadership, Venezuela enjoyed years of high prices of oil as well as easy access to international markets which allowed Chavez’s government to redistribute wealth to the citizen via expansive domestic social spending resulting in multiple benefits to marginalized Venezuelan populations such as reducing poverty and improved health care access as well as expanded education ( Seawright, 2012) . Nevertheless, a firm static hand on essential sectors such as market interventions and outright confiscation of several businesses destroyed the investment and production across the non-oil economy. In addition, the mismanagement and inadequate investment in the state-controlled energy company, PDVSA, resulted in sharp declines in oil production. Moreover, the populist economic policies prompted inflation. Despite improvements in poverty indicators, homicide crime rates increased.
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The country crises took a worse turn in 2013 following the rising to power of Maduro whose administration received little domestic political support prompting his regime to often respond coercively, to crack the opposition voices. For instance, it arrested the opposition leader as well as accused the United States of meddling in its political affairs. The country has incurred high levels of debt, economic recession and increasing inflation since 2014 due to the rapidly dropping prices of oil ( Seawright, 2016) . Currently, the country is battling crime which has taken a worse turn from kidnappings to murder to an armed robbery in both poor and affluent neighbourhoods. Recovery efforts have been dwindled by mismanagement of PDVSA and government’s negative attitude towards private business that has repelled off foreign investors despite the increasing prices of oil ( Morris, 2012) . This paper will discuss the recommendations and approaches of pursuing humanitarian interventions by the United States in Venezuela before the nations President by National Security Council (NSC) via the Vice President.
If any national interests of the U.S. are involved, then what are they? If no interests are involved, then why not?
As a strong believer in democracy, the United States has remained in the front lines in pursuing all means necessary to promote democracy internally and externally, protect human rights as well as improve the domestic and the international economy. These efforts have not only eased the lives of Americans but also the lives of citizens from other countries. As such, United States has some national interested vested in the crisis-stricken Venezuela.
The first interest America has in Venezuela is its vital role in America’s energy as the nation is more than any other Latin American country to the United States. On top of having the largest known oil reserves, Venezuela is the fourth largest supplier of oil to America which accounts for more than 15% of its oil imports and currently the United States consumes about 750,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil per day ( Billig, 2014 ). Venezuela also serves as a market for America’s refined products, hence, any disruption in oil supply is a threat to global energy as well as the financial market. Secondly, as a superpower country, the United States is interested in the regional stability and security as for many years the five nations that constitute South America’s Andean region have remained convulsed. The current escalating violence in Venezuela is not only inflicting damage on the nation itself, but also it is undermining the ability of the bordering nations to achieve as well as maintain peace.
Since the crisis took a worse turn in 2013, there has been a constant increase in unemployment, inflation and shortage of basic goods which has raised a humanitarian crisis that is a concern to the United States. The challenges have unleashed millions of refugees who are doing all they can to enter the US, for example, in 2016, more than 18, 154 people applied for American asylum and since 2018 started, more than 8,300 people have applied Asylum ( Billig, 2014 ). Even though president Trump’s travel ban shut down the refugee program, America is feeling the pressure to admit Venezuelans leaving their nation on humanitarian and political reason.
Finally, the US has played a critical role in spreading democratic institutions in Latin America for some decades had been plagued by a dictatorship. Retrenchment in Venezuela poses the threat of spreading to other nations with Anti-Us leaders like Bolivia and Ecuador whereas American foes such as Russia and China are benefiting from the crises by establishing economic ties with the country. Further isolation may push Maduro further to form ties with American foes Iran and North Korea.
Does the U.S. have a responsibility to protect (R2P) the people of Venezuela or intervene in any way ?
To this day, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been a crucial pillar in peacemaking missions for nations in violence against humanity such as Venezuela, hence, the United States with its international interests in this country has the more R2P than any other country. Since the anti-government protests began in April 2017, more than 200 Venezuelans protestors and security force officers have been killed and the more the violence advances, the closer the Venezuelans draw closer to mass atrocity crimes that result from systematic government abuses of human rights which in turn is increasing the violent street protest ( Zouda, Nishizawa, & Bencze, 2017) . The economic crises that have plagued the country since 2013 has led to extreme food and medical shortage as well as a shortage of other basic goods in addition to President Maduro’s announcement of plans to create a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the constitution that will supersede institution such as the opposition-majority National assembly has heightened the tension with the nation. The opposition, as well as international observers, have termed this plan as a move to undermine the nation’s democracy and reintroduction of dictatorship in Venezuela ( Zouda, Nishizawa, & Bencze, 2017) . Moreover, the government has banned all demonstrations that pose a threat of destabilising the vote on Constituent Assembly and threatened a jail term of more than years for anyone who contravenes the ban.
All these actions violate by all means the human rights of the Venezuelans which means that the United States has the responsibility of stopping the use of disparate and deadly forces currently being carried out by the security forces in Venezuela and also bears the responsibility of halting the systematic human rights abuses. In addition, the United has the responsibility of working with the international community, precisely the OAS to pressure the Maduro’s government to hold meaning negations with the oppositions as well as works towards ending the political crisis in the country.
If action is called for, then what policy options are available to the U.S.? If no action is recommended, why not?
Venezuela is a country of national interest to the United States and as such, there are many actions that America can take to help bring economic, political, and social stability in Venezuela. However, cautions must be exercised to ensure that the actions are primarily meant to benefit the citizens of Venezuela and not the national interests of the Americans.
So far, the United States has only implemented sanctions on Maduro and some of the government officials, however, this is only but a tactic. The United States should adopt a more straightforward strategy whose primary goal is to promote an urgent democratic transition in Venezuela which includes elections, humanitarian relief as well as economic recovery of the crisis-stricken nation ( Webber & Carr, 2012 ). These efforts should start with vigorous diplomacy that will encourage other crucial governments to seize acknowledging the legitimacy of Maduro presidency, the constituent assembly as well as any other regional elections that will be conducted under the present corrupt regime.
The United States should also demonstrate its will to help out with the Venezuela crisis by preparing for a post-Maduro transition, therefore, it should organize forums to bring together the democratic opposition leaders with like-minded donor nations as well as with the inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank ( Webber & Carr, 2012 ). These sessions will coordinate multilateral support for economic reconstruction and political transition after Maduro. Most importantly, this group’s main task should be to unravel a national complain that would recover all the national resources that Maduro and his colonies have stolen from Venezuela. The United States should put lay down a measure to prepare such a government and the United Nation Security Council to tackle the current security challenges that are arising in Venezuela including the vast Russian weapons inventory that Maduro’s regime has distributed in every corner of the country, the potential refugee crises as well as international criminals currently operating in Venezuela ( Webber & Carr, 2012 ). The United States Trump should also strive to get non-partisan support from the Congress which will give him unlimited power to implement more effective sanctions, boost international diplomatic efforts as well as show that democratic transition is at the top of America’s interest for Venezuela.
Conclusion
Venezuela is a crucial country not only to America but the world primarily because it plays a crucial role in the global energy and financial market. Its oil reserves provide more than 15% of the United States oil import. However, the current Madura regime has driven the country into crises that have resulted in enormous suffering and death of Venezuelans. The economic crisis has seen basic necessities such as food and healthcare become unfordable to the citizens while the growing violence and crime have resulted in deaths of hundreds of Venezuelans. These hostilities threaten the democracy that the United Stated worked tirelessly to implement in Latin America and the violence also poses a security and political stability of the region. As such, the United States bears the responsibility to protect the people of Venezuela as in doing so it will protect its interest as well. It should put down measures to oversee the overhauling of Maduro’s regime and prepare a democratic transition after Maduro is gone and ensure that all the national resources that the regime has stolen from the people is recovered and returned to the Venezuelans.
References
Billig, M. (2014). The Venezuelan Oil Crisis: How to Secure Webber, J. R., & Carr, B. (Eds.). (2012America's Energy. Foreign Affairs , 2-7.
Morris, E. (2012). A Matter of Extreme Urgency. Naval War College Review , 55 (2).
Seawright, J. (2016). Party-system collapse: the roots of crisis in Peru and Venezuela . Stanford University Press.
Webber, J. R., & Carr, B. (Eds.). (2012). The new Latin American left: Cracks in the empire . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Zouda, M., Nishizawa, T., & Bencze, L. (2017). ‘In the Eye of the Hurricane’: Using STEPWISE to Address Urgent Socio-political Issues in Venezuela. In Science and Technology Education Promoting Wellbeing for Individuals, Societies and Environments (pp. 339-357). Springer, Cham.
